The books I've read & the movies I've seen

From IMDb: “Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings.”

I’m a big fan of Zoe Kazan, and that’s kind of the only reason this movie was even on my radar. Before going in to see it we knew that it was vaguely based on Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon’s real life story about how they met and it turned out to be a rather cute little movie.

You were really rooting for Kumail to get the girl by the end of the movie (despite the fact you knew in real life they ended up together and therefore obviously were going to at the end of the movie) but it was nice to watch it all unfold not he screen in unexpected ways. It was also really moving seeing how Emily’s illness was affecting Kumail in both his life and his work.

The comedy element of the movie wasn’t overdone – I’m really not a fan of slapstick over the top comedy. It was handled with taste in this movie, and even the jokes that were made about race or parenting styles felt like completely natural things for characters in these circumstances to come out with.I much prefer movies with a quieter sense of humour such as this one instead of going for ridiculous and obvious laughs.

Kumail Nanjiani portrays himself in the movie, and it makes for a very touching performance. His chemistry with Zoe Kazan was obvious, and she was a wonderful choice to play Emily opposite him (even though she spent much of the movie in a coma). Their scenes together were wonderful, and if the way they were together on screen is anything reminiscent of how the real Emily is with Kumail then they are going to be together for a long time.

The movie manages to be sweet and lovely without being too sappy and making you fed up of Kumail hovering around in the hospital after Emily. The comedy element is balanced perfectly with the love story, and makes this a lovely little romantic comedy for people to find.